Miller Heads Back To The Left Coast

I enjoyed watching Miller play, although he was the Sixer's Hornacek in more ways than one. Wish him luck out west, and I'm pulling for him to find success.

As for the PG race, I could actually see Holiday may a surprise push. I hink the team wants Lou to be the 6th ,an, so all Holiday has to do is not hurt them out there and I believe the job is his. In some ways reminiscent of Iguodala as a rookie in that defense, selflessness and a goood BB IQ could trabslate into big rookie minutes for a guy who is offensively challenged but knows it.

There should be enough offense with Thad/Iguodala/Brand. Bu the bench really needs offense, and that's why EJ will look to have Lou and Speights anchor the 2nd unit.

I'm very encouraged hearing Iggy will start at the 2. I think with him at the 2 and Thad at the 3 the Sixers could have one of the best wing combos (offensively and defensively) in the league. I didn't see that coming as I thought Jordan said Iggy would originally be the 3 with Thad at the 4 (and Brand at the 5).

I think Jrue has a non-trivial chance of becoming the starting PG this year. Sure, he needs seasoning, but he is strong defensively and has size. Plus, the Sixers will have plenty of scoring from Iggy, Thad, Brand, Kapono and Speights (if he gets decent minutes). He needs to work on his shot and his decision making. I'm hoping McKie can help with his development.

If it stays the way it is, Jrue has at least a decent chance of starting as PG by the mid point of the year, if not sooner. He only has to unseat Lou Will, who doesn't play a lick of D and isn't much of a passer. Add to that his tendency to chuck up a lot of shots per minute and Lou should be unseated fairly shortly.

Never. Well at least not this year. He won't be unseated, if they eventually reward him with it. This 19 year old kid is not going to be polished enough to guard this upgraded talent which surely exixts in the 'league'.

I wouldn't be averse to posing a guess, and say, that Lou's D will be more passable than the kid's over the course of the season. This will be a whole new ballgame for anyone that age. And we all know Lou's strengths have not yet appeared under the defensive category. He (Jrue) may be athletic but his smarts just aren't going to be there yet. You know, that heady-ness (no pun intended) that Miller had leaps and bounds of.

A.Miller was , in my mind, similar to one of my favorite Sixers, G.McGinnis.After being down a few years after 2001, he became the best player on teams that got back to the playoffs and brought back some excitement to us fans just like big George did back in the 70!s. Tk76, I could see your scenerio playing out and wouldn!t it be something if E.S.!s project draftpick has an immediate effect.

Andre did a great job for the sixers. He imposed his will in many a game during his run here. He kept us competitive when he could have helped take a more seasoned team over the top.
Now Elton fills his role. A seasoned vet with a young team. Let's hope he shows the same competitive nature as Andre. This team is young but more seasoned than the team's Andre has lead over the past couple of seasons.
I hope Andre experiences more than 1 round of playoff basketball with the Blazers. I'll be rooting for him and the Blazers.

Miller is expected to step into the starting position that was occupied by Steve Blake last season. Blake, who has been the full time starter in Portland for each of the last two seasons, could ask for a trade. One Western Conference executive expressed surprise that Blake was not involved in a sign-and-trade deal for Miller.

"I figured they would get something for him," said the executive. "And Blake played in Washington so he knows [Sixers coach] Eddie Jordan's system."

I think the sixers don't want to spend more the 2 mil on this backup point guard AND they really believe LOU WILL is ready to step in. Blake certainly would've earned minutes on this team. Minutes that they want going to Lou & Drue. Seems they are making decisions from a money savings/player development slant. We'll find out if they overated Lou Will or not. Should be interesting.
Please start Iggy at the 2. It makes sense if Lou Will is the point that a facilitator plays along side of him. Hope they've been working on the 3 pt shooting.

Think you're probably right, stw. Relatively speaking, Portland got Miller for a bit of a bargain. You would think that the Sixers could have pulled off a sign and trade, maybe even a multi-team deal, and took back similar money and one or two players if they had really wanted to. Instead it looks like they want to spend that roughly 6 to 7 million on 3 bargain basement veterans.

Wonder if they are pursuing Tinsley. Maybe the Sixers could benefit from another team's buyout for a change.

At this point, I'd find Arroyo, Lue, or Dixon acceptable. I think Knight might be over the hill. Brezec might be an interesting addition at backup center. He's likely a defensive stiff but he can shoot.

Sad, both AI9 and Thad are strangely missing from that list. Honestly, I had read that Espn tends to dis Philly and I did not believe that, but it is becoming more and more apparent it is true. Do you think it was an oversight or on purpose.

Doesn't seem to be an oversight or on purpose. With the exception of Rondo, every perimeter player on that list can do one thing - shoot. Sadly, our two hosses are still working out the kinks in that part of their respective games.

Well as it stands...this team has just become 35 win team. Some may complain about Dre's defense but the reality is he carried the team ofensively on many nights and offense is this teams problem more than defense.
I guess Ed has decided that even with a healthy brand last year we werent goodenough to beat Orlando...or any other top east team so its time to do a little rebuilding/player development.
I agree with the decision...however as a fan its hard to get jacked up over a 35 win team......even a team with good players at all spots needs a saavy PG...which Lou Will isnt...not based upon last years disaster.

I'm not sure what this says about how Ed viewed the team's chances last year. I think it has more to do with crazy demands by Miller, skipping that exit interview, the contract they gave Lou last summer and not wanting to pay Miller for past performance. He's been great (offensively) for the past two years, but I think they were leery of whether he'd be great for two more.

Anyway, 35 wins isn't out of the question, I think they'll be better than that, but 35 is definitely possible.

As for the PG position, starting Lou at the point worries me SOOOOOO much less if Iguodala is the other starting guard. In my mind, I see Iguodala initiating the offense and playing more of the traditional PG role on the team. Lou will probably bring the ball up, but the offense will really start w/ the ball in Iguodala's hands more often than not, which is exactly what we want right now.

Dala being a primary ballhandler was one reason I was on board with letting Miller walk in the 1st place. He is a point forward by nature, so surrounding him with better finishers is a good plan going forward

Great blog and balance of reporting (unlike ESPN). I think we will miss Miller but he is getting old, slower and it is time to move on! He wanted to be on the West Coast (even stated that on TV) and he still thinks he is young. I do believe we will miss him at times but I expect Lou and Sammy (I cannot believe I am writing this with Sammy stated) to rise to the opportunity.

And, on the other side, if as many state, they fall flat, we will atleast know what we have as a team. And, one never knows, we may even "shock the world".

I'm not disappointed that they let Miller walk, but this is one year late. After Elton Brand went down last year, they should have traded Miller (I think Brand went down before the trading deadline) and allowed Lou to play the point, AI to play SG, Thad to play SF and Speights to play PF. They probably wouldn't have made the playoffs but we'd know more about the so-called young core than we know now and we might have gotten a second 1st round pick for Miller. Now we are in the same learning situation and a year has gone by. We will have to be lucky and have everything go just right to make the playoffs this year, including LW surprise us at PG.

I would've liked to have seen more of Iguodala at the two and Thad at the three last season, but I never heard a trade rumor that would've been worth sacrificing the playoffs for to get rid of Miller. If Portland really wanted him, they could've put something together to entice the Sixers, but they didn't. He wasn't even the guy they wanted this summer, he was an afterthought when plans a through c or d didn't pan out. Playoff experience is under-rated IMO.

I won't 'miss' Miller as I advocated trading him pretty much the moment he got here...I'm disappointed that he's walking away with nothing to show in return but I also thought they should have traded him a couple years ago when his value was higher.

Not really all that enthused with how the off season has progressed since the draft.

I'm eager to see what happens this season. I'm waiting for the team to surprise me, since I actually feel they will do quite badly.

In the ideal scenario Jrue proves his worth and the coaching staff decide to start him. Brand provides a solid 18/9 every night. Lou starts playing like he did in 07-08. Iggy and Thad start shooting better. Sam (finally!) gets his head into it. Speights starts trying to rebound and play defense. Jason Smith returns as though he never went away.

And yet even in that ideal scenario we'd probably end up #5 or #6 and get beaten in the first round again.

I just saw an interview on comcast with Stefanski...he said they WILL bring in a veteran PG but also feels Lou Will is up to the task. This basically means if they cant find a half decent veteran PG to start, (their preference) they will let Lou Will start and downplay that they wanted a veteran PG and say it was just for "depth" not to start.

You can sell me on 9 deep, but I've just seen way too much of Willie already. He needs to be buried, as far as I'm concerned. Dust him off every once in a while when absolutely nothing is working on the offensive end and see if he can't catch fire for five minutes, otherwise just bury him.

Green can be a viable 10-15 min player against the opponent's bench for short stretches. His biggest problem is that he has played against mostly starters, which expose his bad qualities.

There was a great quote from the Election season which was used to describe Palin and also fits here: Green is a Post Turtle. The anecdote goes that sometimes in Texas, you might encounter a turtle placed quite precariously on top of a post. You sit there, wondering about the turtle, knowing that the turtle did not get there by himself and he really does not belong up there. Finally, you realize the post turtle is really an indictment of the idiot(s) that put him there.

Sean, I like Willie in a bench role as much as a lot of the bench s.g.!s in the league if shooters are around him. But S.Hill seemed to think he hasn!t reached his ceiling yet. He is what he is but I like your analogy.

In Andre Miller's comments upon his announcement in Portland were that we would be positively suprised by Lou William's performance at the point. I hope he wasn't just blowing smoke, but then he didn't really have any reason to give phony compliments to LW.

I remain an incurable optimist. LW, AI, WG and TY will all improve their shooting; LW, MS and TY will improve their defense; JS and EB will be fully healed and productive; Sam D will "get it" and fulfill his role. With all that, the Sixers will win 50 games and try to challenge Boston for 3rd seed.